Wow, finally nearing the end of this comic with just a couple more nails to beat this dead coffin with.

Ever since the abolition of slavery, captitalism has been looking for ways to get free labor in the pursuit of maximizing profits while minimizing costs. Taking advantage of prison labor has built in advantages based on exploiting a public hopped up on law and order, tough on crime rhetoric and demonizing colored people who disproportionately make up our prison population. It’s actually pretty fucking ironic that the same people who scream “they took our jerbs!” the loudest in opposition to undocumented immigrants stay silent (or are just ignorant) of how many jobs have been turned into de facto slave labor performed by prisoners. That, and the fact that the real threat to jobs is increased automation, which should serve as a great boon to society if the gains were spread out equally… but when in human history has that ever been the case?

Off topic, but I found it hard to believe we had never addressed the prison industrial complex in past mini-comix (unless you count Happy Bunny goes to Jail), but I’m sure we’ll be revisiting this issue in the future, as it’s one of the many systemic failures in our society that shows no sign of going away any time soon.

Oh yeah, and the first three pages of this section were drawn by Mike and the last one was drawn by Rio.